The Lost Mr. Linthwaite/Chapter 1
CHAPTER I
BY WORD OF MOUTH
Fleet Street, at four o'clock that springtide afternoon, was at its busiest. The most eminent of the recently deposed European Sovereigns, emulating the example of Napoleon Bonaparte, had broken loose from his place of exile, made a dramatic reappearance in his former capital that morning, and was rallying round him his old adherents to the confusion of a new Government and the anger of both hemispheres.
The London evening papers were hurrying out edition after edition with the latest tidings from the scene of action. Newspaper carts were starting out to all points of the compass; newspaper boys were risking their limbs among the wheeled traffic; at every corner of street and alley men were turning over the damp sheets in haste to catch some idea of the latest freak of the man who was still a danger and a menace.
From the end of Fetter Lane to the middle of Ludgate Circus there was an unusual accentuation of noise and bustle, and to a girl who came into the street in a taxicab from the direction of London Bridge it seemed as if she were suddenly plunged into a crystallised quintessence of all the racket of the world.
The taxicab driver pulled up in front of a palatial building, got down, and, opening the door of his vehicle, looked at his fare as a man looks who is about to impart information which, he is quite certain, is being imparted to its recipient for the first time.
"Morning Sentinel office, miss," he said.
The girl dropped a two-shilling piece into the outstretched hand, and hurried into the doorway. A grey-moustached commissionaire, presiding over a group of boys, sized up her timidity and inexperience, and advanced as she entered.
"Yes, miss?" he asked. "Want to see somebody?"
The girl held out a sheet of letter-paper and pointed to the signature.
"Can I see Mr. Richard Brixey?" she asked.
"Mr, Brixey, miss? Certainly—I believe he's in just now," answered the commissionaire. He picked up a sheaf of callers' forms and handed the girl a pencil. "If you'll just fill that up, miss, and then take a seat in the waiting-room."
The girl took the form and quickly understood its meaning. Without delay she handed it back, filled up, and the commissionaire glanced it over:
| Caller's Name - - - - - | Miss Georgina Byfield |
| Caller's Address - - - - | The Mitre, Selchester |
| To See - - - - - - - - - | Mr. Richard Brixey. |
| Business - - - - - - - | About Mr. John Linthwaite. |
"Stubbins!" said the commissionaire.
A boy detached himself from half-a-dozen who lounged on a bench, took the slip of paper, vanished into an elevator, was whirled upwards, and disappeared; the girl, motioned thereto by the commissionaire, walked into a waiting-room and sat down. But she had only had time to realise that there was a map of London on one wall and a large photogravure portrait of the proprietor of the Morning Sentinel on another, when Stubbins shot into view again, and beckoned to her as only an absolutely unconcerned youth can beckon.
Next moment she found herself being swiftly borne into high regions; a moment later she was traversing a long corridor; then Stubbins flung open a door and motioned her to go in as a warder might motion a prisoner to enter a cell. The corridor was gloomy, the room bright; she was conscious at first of nothing but the fact that a man was there, alone, and that he came hurriedly forward.
But the next instant, as the door closed behind her, she saw that this was a young man, who looked, indeed, much more youthful than he probably was. He was a shortish, athletic-looking young man, with broad shoulders and an air of activity—a pink-faced, blue-eyed, red-haired person, clean-shaven; by no means handsome, for he owned a snub nose and many freckles, but suggestive of much mental ability and general alertness.
He wore a new suit of rather loud-patterned tweeds, and a club tie of pronounced colours; a green Homburg hat was tilted back off his red hair, and in his anxiety he forgot to remove it—he was so anxious, indeed, that without any ceremony he instantly pointed to the name which Miss Georgina Byfield had written down at the foot of the form.
"What's this?" he demanded, as he hurried forward. "That's my uncle's name? What do you know about him? I see you're from Seichester. Is—is he ill?"
He was taking in all that he could about his caller as he spoke. She was about his own height—a girl, he decided, of twenty or twenty-one, brown-haired, brown-eyed, pleasing rather than strictly pretty, quietly but well-dressed; a superior sort of girl, he thought. And he suddenly pulled forward a chair, and at the same moment snatched off his hat.
It's difficult to explain," answered Miss Byfield. "I don't know anything—except what I've been sent to tell you."
"And that," he broke in eagerly, "That's—what?"
"Mr. Brackett, of the Mitre Hotel, at Seichester, sent me," replied Miss Byfield, "I am bookkeeper there, Mr. John Linthwaite came to the hotel three days ago—that was on Monday. But since Tuesday, morning nothing has been seen of him, either at the hotel or in the town. He's disappeared."
Brixey, who was standing with his hands plunged deep in his pockets, staring at his visitor, screwed up his lips as if to whistle. But before the sound came he twisted round, dropped into the chair behind his desk, and became business-like.
"Just tell me all about it," he said. "Disappeared! Why, I was to meet him at Winchester to-morrow morning! The fact is"—he pointed to a suit-case which stood on a chair close by—"I was going down there to-night; I was just off when you sent up your name. But—tell me."
Miss Georgina Byfield was slowly considering the structure of her story. She had rehearsed it more than once on her way to London and the Morning Sentinel office, but now that she was in the presence of the, person she had been sent to find, it seemed to her that it was no easy matter to tell even the plainest of tales. And Brixey saw her diffidence, and hastened to help.
"Just begin at the beginning," he said, with an understanding smile "The beginning—that's always best. Then we know where we are."
Miss Byfield, who had been thoughtfully regarding him, nodded.
"Well," she said, "it began on Monday evening, then. A gentleman—a stranger—came in and booked a room at the Mitre, just before dinner-time, and said he’d want it until Friday morning. He signed the register as Mr. John Linthwaite, London—no other address. I believe he told Mr. Brackett, the landlord, that evening, that he had come to Selchester to look round the old places—the cathedral, and the Priory, and the city walls, and so on. Next morning, soon after breakfast, he went out, and we've never seen him since."
"That was Tuesday morning?" asked Brixey.
Miss Byfield nodded.
"And now," said Brixey, "it’s Thursday afternoon. So he's been missing from your place two days. And two nights."
"Yes," she assented. "Two days and two nights."
"Wasn't Mr. Brackett alarmed when Mr. Linthwaite didn't return on Tuesday night?" asked Brixey.
"Mr. Brackett thought that he had possibly met some friend who lived in the neighbourhood and had gone home with him for the night," answered Miss Byfield. "But when no message came, and he didn't return again last night, nor send any word—well, then he began to get uneasy, because he thought that Mr. Linthwaite, in looking about him, might have met with some accident.
"For instance, behind the Priory—which he’d spoken of going to see—there’s a large sheet of water, in a very lonely place, and—well, Mr. Brackett thought, you know, that"
"That possibly he'd fallen into it," said Brixey. "Just so. And how,did you hear of me?"
Miss Byfield held out the letter which she had produced to the taxicab,
"This morning, first thing," she replied, "Mr. Brackett looked round No. 7—Mr. Linthwaite’s room—to see if he could get any clue to his address. He couldn’t find anything but this—it was lying on the dressing-table. He and I read it. And we gathered, of course, that Mr Linthwaite was your uncle and that you were to meet him at Winchester to-morrow."
"Just so!" said Brixey. "I was! I’m just beginning my holiday; he and I were to meet at Winchester and go on through the south and south-west of England together. But—I interrupted you."
"So Mr. Brackett told me to catch the noon express to London Bridge and come straight here to tell you," concluded Miss Byfield. "He thought it would be better than wiring,"
"Very good of him, and kind of you," said Brixey. "But—this is a queer affair! Mr. Linthwaite, as I’ve said, is my uncle, and I know him and his habits exceedingly well, for he and I, both being bachelors, have lived together in chambers in the temple for some years. He's a most punctilious, methodical man, and after booking a room at your hotel he certainty wouldn't absent himself without letting you know. So—something's happened. You heard nothing of him in Selchester?"
"Nothing?" replied Miss Byfield.
"And has Mr. Brackett made no inquiries?" asked Brixey.
"You see, we thought he would be coming back every minute," explained Miss Byfield. "Mr. Brackett didn't know what to do, and he didn't like to go to the police about it. But he had some hopes that you, perhaps, had heard from Mr. Linthwaite."
"Heard nothing," said Brixey. He picked up a railway guide, and hastily turned to one of its pages. "Did you come straight to this office from London Bridge, Miss Byfield?" he asked. "You did? Then, you've had no tea? Very well—we've just got an hour to get some and to catch the 5.45 to Selchester. Sorry to hustle you, but I reckon I must get straight down there and take a look round for my uncle; he's got to be found. So"
He seized his suit-case as he spoke, flung the green Homburg on the back of his red hair, threw an overcoat over his left shoulder, and hurried Miss Byfield away to the lift. Two minutes more and she was again in a taxicab and in the roar of Fleet-Street, and Brixey, sitting at her side, was looking as if all the noise was a million miles away.